I’ll start by saying that I’m new to synthesizers and not really musically inclined…

I have a Behringer Neutron that I purchased second-hand and it seems like the oscillators flutter and go a little sharp/flat as they play. The fluttering happens pretty quickly so even during a short key press it sounds like the note is going into and out of tune repeatedly. It’s not really rythmic, just kind of random fluttering that makes all of the notes sound kind of bad.

To rule out any of the other parts of the synth I grab the OSC1 (or OSC2, both behave poorly) output directly and play through an amp. I have the LFO rate dialed down, although I don’t think that should have an impact given that I’m listening right at OSC1. The noise is dialed down, both attenuators are at minimum, but again, I don’t think those should have an impact because they are being skipped since I’m listening at the OSC1 output directly. All of the different octave ranges have the same behaviour.

When I enter tune mode (by holding the corresponding OSC ‘Range’ button and watching the LEDs around the LFO shape knob) and adjust the OSC1 tuning knob I can never get just the center LED lit showing it’s in tune. The closest I can get is the center mostly lit and the two adjacent LEDs flutter like the pitch does so you can even see what I’m hearing on the built-in tuner.

An additional indicator that something is wrong is that it takes anywhere from 7 to 15 minutes to go through it’s calibration routine whenever it is powered on. In other words, it’s sits with the LEDs around the LFO shape knob going back and forth and the octave LEDs ever-so-slowly advancing.

Does anyone have any experience troubleshooting something like this? I’m not really sure where to go from here.

Thanks,

  • cousteauEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ll preface this by saying I’m not a technician in any way, just a musician with some thoughts. From all that you’ve described, it might indeed be a faulty unit, but let’s not jump to any conclusions and try a few things to guarantee it’s not something easily addressable. It might be helpful if you can post a video showing how its setup and what the sound is like.

    That definitely does not sound like regular behaviour but it’s hard to know if that’s an issue with the instrument itself, or an issue with how you’ve setup your init patch. Just to be super clear, have you done a factory reset and built the init patch that the manual suggests?

    From what I’ve read and heard, Neutrons are known to be finicky when it comes to tuning. I had a Neutron about a year ago and ended up selling it due to tuning instability. But what you’re describing sounds much more annoying…almost like a problem with the power source (or the oscillators themselves). Are you using the given power supply or USB? An easy first place to start would be by isolating the power (trying on a different plug that has no other electronics plugged in) and seeing if that behaviour continues.

    If a factory reset and power aren’t the issues, your best bet is to contact the person you got it from, see if they ever had any similar issues. Otherwise you can always contact Behringer for support.